Monthly Archives: October 2015

I think the first real “boyfriend/girlfriend” kiss was freshman year of HS, with a boy in marching band. That was about it. He was a nice enough guy, but there wasn’t really a relationship there. I hope he found someone wonderful.

My first love? There are so many definitions to that…
My dad is my hero first and foremost. He was the one who saw my potential even when I couldn’t.

I always remember being really good at having crushes on boys. Never doing much about it, but that didn’t stop me from “falling in love” (or something like it) on the regular.

I know I got my heart broken really badly in HS (not the first kiss guy– I probably did the heart breaking there). To this day, I can barely talk about it. I still find it hard to wish that guy as well.

It actually took until I started dating the Hubs to realize how badly I had been broken– because he put everything back in place. So I guess my husband is my first real love, mostly because he was able to love me back.

If you know me, you know memories aren’t exactly my thing. You’d think I used drugs or something (I never have…well, maybe drank too much in college…), but a lot of my young life is a blur. I don’t take good pictures, I suck at scrapbooking, and I’m pretty sure those are traits I inherited from my mother.Last week, I was visiting my parents and nosed around in their basement. I have a ton of stuff there from college and my first apartment that I had promptly forgotten about.. and I wasn’t the only one– my sister, who was also graduated from Seton Hall University 8 years before me, had a bunch of textbooks in boxes in storage. I brought home a bunch of stuff in a plastic punch bowl that is still sitting on my coffee table. I haven’t touched it. (Maybe I’ll rifle through it after this post.)

So… earliest memory….

Probably the flowery pink dress I wore when I was in Kindergarten to portray Queen Isabella in a “play” about Christopher Columbus. I basically got to say “yes” to some boy wearing a hat before 5 kids walked across an “ocean” to Hispaniola with 3 paper boats.

NOW BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING….

Look, folks. I don’t think any 5-year-old is going to understand the concept of oppression and exploitation of native peoples unless they are aware that some white dude went to another part of the world. It’s an educational concept called scaffolding. So I generally don’t have a problem with Columbus Day, or the man himself. (A lot of people want to replace it with Bartolome Day– except that’s already on the calendar in July. Let kids have a day off from school in October and calm your tits.)

So yeah. That’s about it. The 5 years before that are a blank, which is most definitely not a result of alcohol consumption.

Seriously: social media is the way of the world. We have a responsibility to ourselves and the world around us to use social media properly, lest we get caught up in the cliche of the disconnected immoral society.

(See? Don’t be that guy.)

So. When I think of problems with social media, I will hopefully balance it out with the ways in which I try to keep those problems from doing real damage.

“I’m one mental breakdown from thinking we’re actually friends.”
I actually said these words to Alexi Lalas one day during one of his Periscope broadcasts. For anyone who doesn’t know, Periscope is an offshoot of Twitter that allows your camera to broadcast around the world in real time. I believe it was helpful during the Arab Spring protests, but a lot of people use it for fun now (I also follow Adam Richman and John Barrowman). I’ve been following Alexi since the Women’s World Cup this past summer, and he likes to broadcast himself answering questions about soccer and other important things, often from his hotel bed. I realize that I’m quite fortunate in that very often he will answer questions that I post (I’ve also learned to ask the right question at the right time, which helps). I will even, on occasion, make him laugh with my comments. Which led me to start getting the feeling like I had really gotten to know him. Like we are friends. BUT WE’RE NOT. He’s a guy on TV who makes a point to be nice to fans and followers. I’m a relatively knowledgeable fan who prefers to be nice to other people as well. So how do I remain friendly without getting all… stalker-y? I take breaks. Sometimes I’ll go days without posting to anyone, other days I skip certain people. I check my own Twitter feed to make sure no one person is mentioned more than anyone else.

“[I] get into arguments with strangers.”
Well, I don’t. Not anymore. I removed all the news outlets from my Facebook feed. A lot of social, religious, and political groups were removed, too. I didn’t stop believing in them (Boy, will Journey be proud of me!), but I just kept feeling myself getting pulled into huge conversations and discussion threads where I had to defend my position, and there really was no point to it. It was just a huge waste of time. I have much more important things to do. So does everyone else.

#FOMO
That’s short for “Fear of Missing Out,” and it’s a real thing. I never thought I’d be upset with a realization that I was out of the loop (especially considering that, for many years, I wasn’t even aware of a loop…), but this smartphone has me checking stuff constantly! I don’t like seeing or hearing notifications from my phone and not being able to check them, so I’m always checking them. I even get mad at myself. It’s awful. I never have my phone by my bed as a preventive measure.
(SEE?!?!?! This JUST popped up on my Facebook feed– which is open on my computer!)

Also, #TalkingInHashtags

Don’t be these guys, either.

My house looks like… “there seems to have been a struggle…”
For reals, players. I have my back to the living room, but I know what it looks like. It’s not pretty. I like to blame soccer, PTA, driving, soccer, tutoring, kids, and soccer. But it’s mostly time I spend online. I know. Mea culpa. So when this entry is done, the computer is off limits.